Capaldi the 'perfect choice' for doctor says Matt Smith

MATT Smith says Peter Capaldi is the perfect choice to take over as Doctor Who.

The 55-year-old actor was revealed as the Twelfth Doctor during a BBC One special 'Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor' on Sunday and Matt, who will bow out of the show in this year's Christmas special, couldn't be happier about his successor.

He said: "If I had to pick someone I'd pick him. Because I think he's great. Weirdly enough after 'The Eleventh Hour' [Matt's debut as The Doctor] he came up to me in the street and said, 'Mate well done. I watched your episode last night it was brilliant, I think you're really good.' I needed that, I needed a boost and I never forgot it.

"I've loved it, I really have, but when you've got to go, you've got to go. There was a backlash when I was cast. I was 26 and I was unknown.

"I just want to wish my successor all the best and, just say good luck and good on you for getting it. I know he's a both a huge fan of the show and a really nice guy. The casting of it made me really excited, as a fan I think it's a really canny choice, I think he'll be a hit. Good luck man it's going to be a thrill."

Meanwhile, Peter - a lifelong fan of the show, who wrote a letter to Radio Times, at the age of 15, asking them to publish another special to celebrate "25 years of wandering in time with the Doctor" - is thrilled he no longer has to keep the news a secret.

The 'Thick Of It' actor - who starred in a 2008 episode of 'Doctor Who', playing Caecilius in 'Fires of Pompeii' opposite Tenth Doctor David Tennant - said: "It's so wonderful not to keep the secret any longer, but it has been absolutely fantastic in its own way.

"So many wonderful things have happened, for a while I couldn't tell my daughter who kept looking on the Internet and discovering that people were saying, 'so and so should be Doctor Who'. She was getting rather upset that it never mentioned me. I said to her, 'Just rise above it darling.' "